00:01The science has been there forever, right?
00:03This is what happens when you put a body in the ground.
00:06It's just a sped up version.
00:07Transforming it into a process that showed love and care
00:09that we needed to show to our people,
00:11that was our main challenge.
00:14My name is Bree.
00:15And my name is Katie.
00:16And we turn human remains into soil for a living.
00:22When we built Return Home,
00:25we didn't know that people would be visiting so frequently.
00:27And so we're in this industrial complex
00:29in Auburn, Washington.
00:31It took a little bit of work to make it warm
00:34and inviting and welcoming.
00:36This is our lay-in space.
00:38It's where families can choose to have a ceremony
00:40to say their final goodbye to their loved one.
00:43Terramation is the gentle transformation
00:45of human remains into life-giving soil.
00:49And it's legally known as natural organic reduction
00:51and most commonly known as human composting.
00:54Our services here cost $4,950 within Washington State.
00:59including a certified copy of the death certificate,
01:02picking their person up from where they passed away
01:03and the terramation service itself.
01:05So our process is actually two phases.
01:08The first phase happens here in this vessel
01:10and it's the body making its transformation into soil.
01:13That's about a 30-day process.
01:15We open the vessel and what you have is beautiful soil,
01:18but bone remains and those are broken down
01:20into about two-inch pieces that then go back into the compost
01:24so that the microbes can get at the inside of those bones
01:27and break them down completely over the second 30 days.
01:30I am chief operating officer at Return Home,
01:33which means I oversee all of our processes,
01:36both with the families and funeral services.
01:39My title at Return Home is services manager,
01:42which means I work directly with the families
01:44to help them plan their funerals.
01:46I get people bathed and in their wisps and into their vessels.
01:50I wish that people knew how harmful the current offerings
01:55can be to both environment and operator.
01:57We don't use near the energy that a cremation uses.
02:01We don't use the hardwoods and metals
02:03that caskets for burials use.
02:05Everything that our bodies have to give
02:07is going back into the earth at the end.
02:09This is where we give everyone a bath when they come into our care.
02:13It helps protect their skin and keep them intact
02:16for a little bit longer if their family needs more time
02:18before they come into the facility to see them.
02:20We just have a standard shower loofah, some gentle soap,
02:24and then we're just kind of getting into all of little places
02:28where there might be skin buildup or such
02:30that people get as if they've been dying for a long time.
02:33We like to wash the hair. That's my favorite thing to do.
02:36Post-mortem head massage.
02:38A lot of people, when they pass away, their eyes and mouth are open.
02:41We would make sure the mouth is closed
02:43and that the eyelids are closed and lined up as they should be
02:46and that the eyelashes are nice and clean.
02:48We place them in a compostable garment.
02:50My mother makes them, and she will decorate them.
02:54We treat people like they were our family,
02:58and if somebody came into my care and they were a mother,
03:01I would treat them like I would treat my own mother.
03:04Our goal with creating our offices for return home
03:07was to bring comfort to people when they walk in just right off the bat.
03:12So when families are here for their people,
03:15we have this little sign out that says,
03:17when this candle is lit, family is saying goodbye.
03:19That's partly to help people that work here know they need to stay quiet,
03:23but also when people come in the door, they understand that we might not be,
03:27you know, right there because we're with a family.
03:30We always have little pockets of soil all over the funeral home
03:35because we think it's really important that people see and understand the final product.
03:40Right next to our lobby is Bree and I's office.
03:43This is where all of the magic happens.
03:47When someone starts in the death care industry,
03:50maybe like $40,000 a year should be expected,
03:52and then as you gain experience,
03:54you can make up to maybe $65,000 a year.
03:57The average career is five years long for people
04:01because they get into the profession,
04:03and then they realize how demanding it is,
04:05and they realize how the compensation is maybe not what they were hoping for,
04:09and they seek venues elsewhere.
04:11Return home very early on made a commitment to all of us
04:15to give more than the industry generally does to their people.
04:21I will be going to the airport to pick the body up.
04:25He should be bathed already, but I'd like you to just give him a once-over
04:28because he's a young man and he was in a pretty bad accident,
04:31so we just want to make sure that he's clean before he goes into his vessel.
04:35And call his family to let them know he's here?
04:37Yep, of course.
04:42Because the work is so heavy, it makes for a lot of levity to be able to sit across and,
04:48you know, make a joke here and there, share a meme.
04:52The best times is when we get to just, like, have a real belly laugh after working a really difficult
04:57day.
04:58Working with Katie is the best thing that's happened to me professionally,
05:02second to getting the actual job here at Return Home.
05:05Do you want to know something about Bree?
05:07She does bird noises somewhat obsessively,
05:11and I'll just be sat here and I'll hear, like,
05:14from over there or somewhere in the facility and she is calling me by using a bird sound.
05:20Like that.
05:22And there was a reply.
05:28Yeah, it's a problem.
05:32After we lay the compostable garment, then that person is ready to be placed into their vessel.
05:36We would bring the table with the person on it next to the vessel,
05:40and then we actually have a lift, but for Mr. Skelly, Katie and I have no problem being able just
05:44to lift him into the vessel
05:47and place him gently.
05:49And families are able to place into the vessel things that are meaningful to them and their loved ones,
05:54such as candy or letters.
05:56We place the remaining organics on top of the person,
06:00so they're kind of sandwiched in between the two layers.
06:04The body itself is actually what drives the whole process,
06:07because the microbes that are inside of your stomach and in your gut that digest your food
06:12are the same things that break you down after you pass away.
06:15And so we're just taking that natural process and optimizing the area in which that takes place.
06:21Once the laying in process is over, we close the vessel.
06:24It's sealed and not opened until the termination process has completed.
06:30This is a vessel that has been decorated.
06:33We did not expect our families to do this at all in the beginning,
06:36but we had one family kind of start the trend,
06:39and then people started just making beautiful things with lights and photos and all kinds of different things.
06:48Because terramation is a 60-day process, we get to really take families by the hand now
06:53and guide them through the grieving process and guide them through the months following the death
06:59and be a resource to them the entire way through.
07:06Natural organic reduction has been legalized in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Vermont, and most recently California.
07:15We plan on expanding because ultimately we would love to serve people in their local area.
07:23Right now we've helped serve over 15 different states plus Canada, and people are shipping their loved one to us.
07:34This area is what we would call our scattering ground at the Woodland,
07:38and this is where we place people when their families can't take the full amount home with them or choose
07:44not to,
07:45and choose to place their people in an area where it contributes to the local flora.
07:49It's an area that is made and intended to stay wild in perpetuity,
07:54so there's never to be anything developed on this property.
07:57We've had a lot of different reasons that people have chosen to put soil here,
08:00just from physically they can't take as much.
08:03They live in an apartment in downtown Seattle and they just can't take it all.
08:07We're finding that about 70% of our families take the whole amount home with them.
08:13This is where Drew is at.
08:15He was my first family that I took care of at Return Home over a year ago.
08:21After the body decomposes completely, there's about 200 pounds of soil left.
08:26Drew was a big muscular guy.
08:28He probably made about 300 pounds, and there's probably about 150 pounds of him here.
08:34The rest went home with his family.
08:43When I pass, it is the only option that I will choose.
08:46I have been witness to the other options.
08:49I have participated in the other options,
08:51and there is nothing that sits with my soul as well as Terramation does.
08:57I would want my soil to go to, like, a garden or a preserve or something where people could walk
09:04by and sit on a bench with my name on it.
09:06I see myself among, like, a lot of colorful flowers.
09:10I've seen some stuff, you know. I guess that's all I can say.
09:13But no matter how many hard things I've ever seen, it hasn't really affected my view on dying,
09:18because I know that when it's your time, it's your time.
09:21And sometimes you're young, and it's freak, and it's awful.
09:23And sometimes you're old, and you've lived 100 years, and now you have a beautiful story to tell.
09:29So death doesn't scare me at all, but certainly seeing certain things make you reflect on the way that you
09:35die.
09:37Death, it happens to all of us, and it's beautiful.
09:40It's not the terrible thing that people think it is most of the time.
09:44Most people, when they're in their vessel, they just look like they're peaceful.
09:49There's just a peace that comes over people that you just know.
09:53They're okay wherever they are. They're good.
09:56To be able to see life live on in the soil that we send back to families is what makes
10:01this process so miraculous
10:03and really makes it so that I could never go back to the funeral industry as it was.
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